Classification
Class
Magnoliopsida Brongn.
Order
Poales Small
Family
Cyperaceae Juss.
Genus
Carex L.
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Carex megalepis K.A.Ford in Global Carex Group, Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 179: 34 (2015)
Synonymy:
  • ≡ Uncinia ferruginea Boott in Hooker, Bot. Antarct. Voy. II. (Fl. Nov.-Zel.) Part I, 288, t.64 fig.b (1853)
  • ≡ Uncinia australis var. ferruginea (Boott) C.B.Clarke in Cheeseman, Man. New Zealand Fl. 802 (1906)
  • ≡ Uncinia uncinata var. ferruginea (Boott) Kük., Pflanzenr. (Engler) 38 , 62 (1909)
  • = Uncinia nigra Colenso, Trans. & Proc. New Zealand Inst. 17: 253 (1884 [1885])
  • = Uncinia variegata Colenso, Trans. & Proc. New Zealand Inst. 20: 211 (1887 [1888])
Etymology:
This species has large glumes that are much longer than the perigynia; from the Greek mega-, big, and lepis, lepidos, a scale.
 Description

Caespitose. Culms (10)–20–60 cm. × c. 1 mm., glab.; basal bracts dull brown to reddish brown. Lvs 4–8 per culm, = or > culms, 3–5 mm.wide, scabrid on the margins. Spikes 7–16 cm. × 6–10 mm., us. bracteate, female fls c. 60–100, very closely crowded throughout almost the whole spike, internodes 0.5–4 mm. long. Glumes twice as long as utricles, deciduous, linear-subulate, acute or obtuse, coriac., yellowish or ferruginous. Utricles 4–5 × c. 1.5 mm., plano-convex or rarely subtrigonous, dark brown, shining, nerved towards the base with a more strongly marked lateral nerve, sharply contracted below to a stipe 1 mm. long and above to a stout beak 1.5–2 mm. long.

[From: Moore and Edgar (1970) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 2. as Uncinia ferruginea Boott]

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Endemic)
 Bibliography
Cheeseman, T.F. 1906: Manual of the New Zealand Flora. Government Printer, Wellington.
Colenso, W. 1885 ("1884"): A description of some newly-discovered and rare indigenous plants; being a further contribution towards the making known the botany of New Zealand. Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute 17: 237–265.
Colenso, W. 1888: On new Phænogamic plants of New Zealand. Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute 20: 188–211.
de Lange, P.J.; Rolfe, J.R.; Barkla J.W.; Courtney, S.P.; Champion, P.D.; Perrie, L.R.; Beadel, S.N.; Ford, K.A.; Breitwieser, I.; Schönberger, I.; Hindmarsh-Walls, R.; Heenan, P.B.; Ladley, K. 2018: Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2017. New Zealand Threat Classification Series. No. 22. [Not Threatened]
de Lange, P.J.; Rolfe, J.R.; Champion, P.D.; Courtney, S.P.; Heenan, P.B.; Barkla, J.W.; Cameron, E.K.; Norton, D.A.; Hitchmough, R.A. 2013: Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2012. New Zealand Threat Classification Series 3. Department of Conservation, Wellington. [as Uncinia ferruginea Boott] [Not Threatened]
Global Carex Group 2015: Making Carex monophyletic (Cyperaceae, tribe Cariceae): a new broader circumscription. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 179: 1–42.
Hooker, J.D. 1852–1853 ("1853"): The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage of H.M. Discovery Ships Erebus and Terror in the Years 1839–1843, under the command of Captain Sir James Clark Ross. II. Flora Novae-Zelandiae. Part I. Flowering plants. Lovell Reeve, London.
Kükenthal, G. 1909: Cyperaceae - Caricoideae. In: Engler, H.G.A. (ed.) Das Pflanzenreich. Vol. Heft 38.